CHAPTER XVIII.
Youwarkee with child--Their stock of provisions--No beast or fish in Youwarkeis country--The voices again--Her reason for not seeing those who uttered them--She bears a son--A hard speech in her lying-in--Divers birds appear--Their eggs gathered--How Wilkits kept account of time
About three months after we were married, as we called it, Youwarkeetold me she believed she was breeding, and I was mightily pleased withit, for though I had had two children before by Patty, yet I had neverseen either of them, so that I longed to be a father. I sometimes amusedmyself with whimsical conjectures, as, whether the child would have agraundee or not; which of us it would be most like; how we should dowithout a midwife; and what must become of the infant, as we had notmilk, in case Youwarkee could not suckle it. Indeed, I had leisureenough for indulging such reveries; for, having laid in our winterstores, my wife and I had nothing to do but enjoy ourselves over a goodfire, prattling and toying together, making as good cheer as we could;and truly that was none of the worst, for we had as fine bread as needto be eaten; we had pears preserved; all sorts of dried fish; and oncea fortnight, for two or three days together, had fresh fish; we hadvinegar, and a biting herb which I had found, for pepper; and severalsorts of nuts; so there was no want.
It was at this time, after my return from watering one day, whereYouwarkee had been with me, that, having taken several fish, and amongstthem some I had not before seen, I asked her, as we were preparing andsalting some of them, how they managed fish in her country, and whatvariety they had of them there. She told me she neither ever saw norheard of a fish in her life till she came to me. "How!" says I, "no fishamongst you? Why, you want one of the greatest dainties that can beset upon a table. Do you wholly eat flesh," says I, "at DoorptSwangeanti?"--"Flesh," says she laughingly, "of what?"--"Nay," saysI, "you know best what the beasts of your own country are. We have inEngland, where I was born and bred, oxen, very large hogs, sheep, lambs,and calves; these make our ordinary dishes: then we have deer, hares,rabbits, and these are reckoned dainties; besides numberless kinds ofpoultry, and fish without stint"--"I never heard of any of these thingsin my life," says Youwarkee, "nor did I ever eat anything but fruits andherbs, and what is made from them, at Normnbdsgrsutt."--"You will speakthat crabbed word," says I, "again."--"I beg your pardon, my dear,"says she; "at Doorpt Swangeanti, I say; nor I, nor any one else, to myknowledge, ever ate any such thing; but seeing you eat fish, as youcall them, I made no scruple of doing so too, and like them very well,especially the salted ones, for I never tasted what you call saltneither till I came here."--"I cannot think," says I, "what sort of acountry yours is, or how you all live there."--"Oh," says she, "thereis no want; I wish you and I were there." I was afraid I had talked toomuch of her country already, so we called a new cause.
Soon after winter had set in, as we were in bed one night, I heardthe voices again; and though my wife had told me of her countryfolk'sswangeans in that place, I, being frighted a little, waked her; and shehearing them too, cried out, "There they are! it is ten to one butmy sister or some of our family are there. Hark! I believe I hearher voice." I myself hearkened very attentively; and by this timeunderstanding a great deal of their language, I not only coulddistinguish different speakers, but knew the meaning of several of thewords they pronounced.
I would have had Youwarkee have gotten up and called to them. "Not forthe world," says she; "have you a mind to part with me? Though I have nointent to leave you, as I am with child, if they should try to force meaway without my consent, I may receive some injury, to the danger of myown life, or at least of the child's." This reason perfectly satisfyingme, endeared the loving creature to me ten times more, if possible, thanever.
The next summer brought me a yawm,* as fair as alabaster.
* Man-child.
My wife was delivered without the usual assistance, and had asfavourable a labour as could be. The first thing I did, after giving hersome fish-soup, made as skilfully as I was able, and a little cordial,was to see if my yawm had the graundee or not. Finding it had--"So,"says I to Youwarkee, "you have brought me a legitimate heir to mydominions, whose title sure cannot be disputed, being one of you."Though I spoke this with as much pleasure, and in as endearing a way asever I spoke in my life, and quite innocently, the poor Youwarkee burstinto tears to such excess there was no pacifying her. I asked herthe reason of her grief, begged and entreated her to let me know whatdisturbed her, but all in vain; till, seeing me in a violent passion,such as I had never before appeared to be in, she told me she was verysorry I should question her fidelity to me. She surprised me in sayingthis, as I never had any such apprehension. "No, my dearest wife," saysI, "I never had any such suspicion as you charge me with, I can safelyaffirm; nor can I comprehend your meaning by imputing such a thing tome."--"Oh!" says she, "I am sure you have no cause for it; but you saidthe poor child was one of us; as much as to intimate that had it beenyour own, it would have been born as you were, without the graundee,which thought I cannot bear, and if you continue to think so it must endme; therefore take away my life now, rather than let me live to see myfarther misery."
I was heartily sorry for what I had said, when I saw the effects of it,though I did not imagine it could have been perverted to such a contrarymeaning. But considering her to be the faithful-lest and most lovingcreature upon earth, and that true love cannot bear anythingthat touches upon or can be applied (though with ever so forced aconstruction) to an opprobrious or contemptuous meaning, I attributedher groundless resentment to her excess of fondness only for me; andfalling upon the bed by her, and bathing her face in my tears, I assuredher the interpretation she had put on my words was altogether foreignfrom the view they were spoken with; professing to her that I never had,nor ever could have, the least cause of jealousy. On my confirming thisabsolute confidence in her virtue by the strongest asseverations, shegrew fully convinced of her error, and acknowledged she had been toorash in censuring me; and growing pleased at my fresh professions oflove to her, we presently were reconciled, and became again very goodfriends.
When Youwarkee had gathered strength again, she proved an excellentnurse to my Pedro (for that was the name I gave him), so that he soongrew a charming child, able to go in his twelvemonth, and spoke in histwentieth. This and two other lovely boys I had by her in three years,every one of which she brought up with the breast, and they thriveddelicately.
I don't mention the little intervening occurrences which happenedduring this period; they consisted chiefly of the old rota of fishing,watering, providing in the summer for the winter, and in managing mysalt-work; which altogether kept me at full employment, comfortably tomaintain an increasing family.
In this time I had found out several new sorts of eatables. I hadobserved, as I said before, abundance of birds about the wood and lakein the summer months. These, by firing at them two or three times on myfirst coming, I had almost caused to desert my dominions. But as I hadfor the last two or three years given no disturbance at all to them,they were now in as great plenty as ever; and I made great profit ofthem by the peace they enjoyed; and yet my table never wanted a supply,fresh in the summer, or salted and pickled in winter.
I took notice it was about October these birds used to come; and most ofthe month of November they were busy in laying their eggs, which I usedat that time to find in great plenty along the banks of the lake in thereeds, and made great collections of them; I used also to find a greatmany in the woods amongst the shrubs and underwood. These furnished ourtable various ways; for with my cream-cheese flour, and a little mixtureof ram's-horn juice, I had taught my wife to make excellent puddings ofthem; abundance of them also we ate boiled or fried alone, and often assauce to our fish. As for the birds themselves, having long omitted tofire at them, I had an effectual means of taking them otherwise by nets,which I set between the trees, and also very large pitfall nets, withwhich I used to catch all sorts, even from the size of a thrush to thatof a turkey. But as I
shall say more of these when I come to speak of myward by and by, and of my poultry, I shall omit any further mention ofthem here.
You may perhaps wonder how I could keep an account of my time soprecisely, as to talk of the particular months. I will tell you. At mycoming from America, I was then exact; for we set sail the fourteenth ofNovember, and struck the first or second day of February. So far I keptperfect reckoning; but after that I was not so exact, though I kept itas well as my perplexity would admit even then, till the days shorteningupon me, prevented it.
Hereupon I set about making a year for myself. I found the duration ofthe comparative darkness, or what might with me be termed night, in thecourse of the twenty-four hours, or day, gradually increased for sixmonths; after which it decreased reciprocally for an equal time, andthe lighter part of the day took its turn, as in our parts of the world,only inversely: so that as the light's decrease became sensible aboutthe middle of March, it was at the greatest pitch the latter end ofAugust, or beginning of September; and from thence, on the contrary,went on decreasing to the close of February, when I had the longestportion of light. Hereupon, dividing my year into two seasons only, Ibegan the winter half in March, and the summer half in September. Thusmy winter was the spring and summer quarters in Europe, and my summerthose of our autumn and winter.
From my settling this matter, I kept little account of days or weeks,but only reckoned my time by summer and winter, so that I am prettyright as to the revolutions of these; though the years, as to theirnotation, I kept no account of, nor do I know what year of the Lord itnow is.
Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.) Page 22